Exient opens Leamington Spa studio

"Perfectly aligns with our self publishing plans"

Exient, a UK development studio that's worked with Sony, Rovio and Natural Motion has opened a new studio in Leamington Spa.

"Exient is well aligned with the new era of gaming and the transition into its free-to-play and 'games as a hobby' initiatives as we continue to establish our world class client list and develop our new IPs," said CEO Dave Hawkins.

The company, headquartered in Oxford, also recently opened a studio in Brno in the Czech Republic. The move allows the company to move into the world of self-publishing.

"Both Leamington and Brno Studios are founded on substantial industry experience and enhances the group's extensive experience and ambitions and perfectly aligns with our self publishing plans," said the company's Graeme Monk, while group creative director Mike Haigh said the expansion had been a "long-standing ambition."

Exient's back catalogue includes Angry Birds Trilogy for the Nintendo 3DS, The Sims 3 for the DS and DJ Hero for the Wii and PlayStation 2.

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Silicon Spa now has around 30 game companies, maybe more. They keep popping up but it is difficult to keep a track because so many of them are publicity shy. They range from bigger studios like Blitz, Freestyle and Playground through smaller operations like Caperfly to one man operations like VAMflax.
Leamington only has a population of 50,000 so probably has the biggest concentration of game companies in the world. It is the main industry in town and everywhere you go you see industry people.
The local MP, Chris White, the local government politicians and the local civil servants are all up to speed and are very supportive. The council even have a games website: http://siliconspa.com/

There are some big old school developers around like Codemasters and Rare so the pool of talent is impressive. It is easy to understand anyone opening a studio there with such resources. And development staff like Leamington because of the job security. There are always a few people recruiting.